News/PR
Bay Medical Physician Presents Clinical Research Results at International Cancer Conference
July 21, 2005
Panama City, Florida - Dr. R. Charles Nichols, a board certified radiation oncologist practicing at the Bay Medical Regional Cancer Center, presented the results of a clinical trial involving lung cancer patients today at Bay Medical Center. Dr. Nichols recently returned from sharing these findings at an International Cancer Conference in Barcelona, Spain. The 11th World Conference on Lung Cancer, held July 6th, hosted 5,200 physicians and researchers from 103 countries.
The clinical trial, which involved the use of higher than normal radiation doses combined with the use of a cytoprotectant drug, Amifostine, included 24 patients with non-small cell lung cancer. All patients had been determined to be medically inoperable or surgically incurable. This group of patients historically would be expected to have a poor chance of long-term survival. Until recently, high radiation doses have not been considered feasible or safe for patients with advanced lung cancer. The drug Amifostine used in the trial is a cytoprotectant which concentrates in the healthy tissue, protecting this tissue from being damaged by radiation or chemotherapy. This protection allows for safe intensification of treatment without making the treatment less effective.
"Our goal was to show that Amifostine could be given safely while patients were undergoing radiation therapy and chemotherapy," Dr. Nichols explains. "What astounded us, in our final analysis, was that the survival rates of the patients in our trial were better than anything published in contemporary literature." With a median follow-up of 14 months, for the five patients with stage I & II lung cancer, there has been only one patient death. With a median follow-up of 19 months for the 19 patients with stage III lung cancer, there have been only eight patient deaths. Although this study is preliminary and involved only 24 patients, the results seem to contradict the conventional wisdom that lung cancer that can not be cured surgically can not be cured at all. "There is currently a large-scale, national clinical trial in development to further investigate the usefulness of Amifostine as well as the value of radiation dose escalation. We plan to participate here at Bay Medical," says Dr. Nichols. "It's important that patients in our community know that state-of-the-science care is available in our community. By performing this type of clinical research, the hospital is displaying its dedication to developing a meaningful cancer program with the goal of remaining the dominant program in this region."
For more information on this research at Bay Medical, please call Christa Hild at 747-6542.